We Can Run Away Now They’re All Dead and Gone
by Aurey09
Summary: This takes off from the last few minuets of 'Chosen.' The gang leave Sunnydale and trouble, as it usually does, follows them.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **1/10

**Rating: **PG-13

**Disclaimer: **Joss' world, I'm just visiting.

Buffy held herself onto the bus, with all the strength her battle-worn body could muster. She kept her grip on the bloodied scythe with a force great enough to crunch bone. She tilted her gaze up wards, to meet the sight of the Hellmouth folding in on itself. The town becoming nothing more than a gaping sinkhole. The bus kept moving, ahead of the destruction.

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They were alive. The bus had outrun the devastation. Faith's satisfaction was meagre, a lot of girls were gone - she didn't want to count how many. _The First is licked, what it gets for poorly impersonating the dead,_ Faith thought. "Ease off. We're clear." Faith told Wood. They slammed to a halt.

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They made it, Buffy was finally done with Sunnydale and it hadn't dragged her down with it. She was free of it.

The wind wrecked with vengeance across her wounds, and she closed her eyes against it. She dropped smoothly to the road below and looked down the highway, the morning's rays rippled and glistened in the heat, it was surreal. They'd won.

Buffy waited as the inhabitants of the bus stirred within. Dawn was first to scramble from the vehicle's emergency door, she wrapped Buffy tightly into a hug. This was the reason Dawn hadn't let her say goodbye, Buffy hadn't been sure if this moment would come. She was able to ignore the sting from the wound from where she'd been stabbed, as Dawn's arms constricted round her middle.

"I don't understand," Giles said, as he came to Buffy's side, both of them looked at the smoking crater. "What did this?" She heard the wonder in his voice; his Watcherly detachment never enough to repress the emotions there. He would want to justify and investigate what he was seeing - he was probably finding it difficult to restrain himself from cleaning his glasses until the lenses popped out.

Buffy listened for a moment, to the sounds of relief from her friends, the joy of the girls - new Slayers; an audible groan came from the crater once known as Sunnydale, but Giles question cut through it all.

"Spike." She replied, baffling Giles. Buffy felt the damage of her charred flesh, from the touch of Spike's hand and soul, badly burned but it didn't hurt, not anymore.

The 'WELCOME TO SUNNYDALE' sign creaked once and then toppled backwards into the crater. There would be no more 'come back soon'. It was the final testament to the town's annihilation.

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Xander approached Andrew, who had the look of a shell-shocked solider - or at least what shell-shock looked like in the movies. Andrew's face was splattered with beads of blood; Xander knew. This was the moment he'd been dreading all along.

"Did you see?" He couldn't conceal his desperation. He watched Andrew's brain skitter and fail to know how to break the news.

"I was scared. I'm so sorry."

"Did you see what happened?" Xander searched his face. Andrew's gaze gave everything away, before he could look away. "Was she...?"

Xander witnessed a transformation taking place in Andrew, as he found the strength to speak. "She was incredible. She died saving my life."

Xander put a comforting hand on Andrew's shoulder. "That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing." Andrew gave a hint of a smile as Xander walked off to join the others.

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Faith was lost as she looked down, at the guy who thought he was so much prettier than she was. _Yeah right, I'm way hotter than some ex-high-school Principal. _He did have something going for him, which she was lacking at this moment in time; she didn't have a big hot stab wound working it for her. It looked bad, she'd seen a collection of wounds in her time and had often been the cause of them. It looked like some of her earlier work, the kind which nobody on the receiving end had lived through.

"It's not that bad…" She stuttered, "You just sit here."

"That's the plan."

"I'll get someone to --," She started to move, to look for someone else to take care of him. She wasn't good with this sort of thing, anyone would be better to deal with this.

"Did we make it?"

He looked at her with something she couldn't decipher; hope, knowing, but she couldn't be certain. Human emotions weren't her deal - now they were being dealt onto her. She owed him an answer. "We made it. We won."

He smiled, a little - then nothing. He just stared, his last thoughts slowly faded from his eyes.

_Shit! _

Her mind went into overdrive, grief hit like a bitch; whatever could have been between them slipped out of her grasp. She took a second, then moved to close his eyes.

Then he coughed and sputtered back to life.

She drew back a little, embarrassed but mostly happy, she didn't have a better word for it than that.

He gave her a hint of weak grin. "Surprise."

She was pissed, she told herself, but she couldn't help smirking. Vi came over – Faith was alright with her playing nurse-maid, Faith need to stretch her legs anyway, and had a real bad itch for a smoke.

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Half a dozen new Slayers mingled by the bus, sharing the days events, leaving the true Sunnydalers to their wreckage. All thankful, after everything, to be alive. They'd endured, succeeded; the war was done, The First and its minions were toast.

The remaining Scoobys stood together, taking a moment. They'd survived another apocalypse, leaving it at the school gates or what was left of them. Willow couldn't help wondering why the big fights always end in demolished buildings: Sunnydale High, The Initiative, the Magic Box and now the entire town.

Faith sidled over to join them. "Looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business." She seemed tranquil, in a way that she'd always seemed incapable of.

"There is another one in Cleveland," Giles was given a few murderous glances. "Not to spoil the moment..." He bent down and took a stone, throw it into the crater, as he carefully surveying the area.

"We saved the world." Xander said.

"We changed the world." Willow corrected him, with good old-fashioned awe. She realized that she was part of that, maybe it didn't make-up for last year but it was a start. Not going an evil brunet also meant she'd done the right thing, with the spell. Willow looked toward Buffy, as her eyes brimmed with hope and connection. "I can feel them, Buffy. All over. There are Slayers awakening everywhere."

"We'll have to find them." Dawn said.

"We will."

"Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale, so no hope of going there tomorrow..." Giles seemed relieved - he didn't like the mall, he said it was garish and over crowded, to be avoided if it could be helped.

Dawn choked, "We destroyed the Mall? I fought on the wrong side..."

"All those stores gone... The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R Us... who will remember these landmarks unless we tell the world of them?" Xander sighed uncommitted, fatigue from the fight starting to set in.

Buffy remained silent as the gang went back and forth with their habitual light banter, reserved for times like these.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us..." Giles reminded them, again.

"Can I push him in?"

"You got my vote." Willow chirped happily. Giles could be a real stickler, when there was work still to be done, but she wouldn't have expected anything else. He wouldn't have been Giles with out the fanatical work ethic.

"I just wanna sleep, yo. For like a week."

"I guess we all could. If we wanted to."

"Yeah, the First is scrunched, so...What do you think we should do, Buffy?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?" The only other veteran Slayer grinned.

Buffy tried the question on for size, that hadn't been open to her for so many years.

"Buffy? What are we gonna do now?" Dawn asked her nervously. Buffy smiled with a newfound strength and pride. They stood thinking the same thing; what next?

"So really what now… and with the doing of that now?" Willow asked.

"Yeah Buffy, seeing as mass Slaydom was your idea," Xander said. "Don't suppose you've got any more bright ones, do ya?"

"We can do what ever we want to."

They all nodded in agreement, and Dawn grinned, "Cool. Nearly makes up for the lack of mall."

Faith gave Buffy congratulatory shove to the shoulder, before retreating from the potential love-in and hug-athon.

"Well not to be a killjoy," Giles said. "Yet again." He added on everybody's tremendous sighs.

"You kid not, it's your life's work G-man." Xander teased.

"Never call me that, I've mentioned it on numerous occasions. I don't care for it."

Xander's one eye took on a nostalgic glint. "It's nice just being with the vintage. Hay, maybe we'll get to look stuff up in dusty books soon, and have donuts." He back tracked his words, thinking on them. "I don't want to do any of those things. Donuts are just too risky, too many saturation attempt have been made against me, I have too keep stream line, with all the nearly getting killed and running away parts of life."

"Yes, as much as we all enjoy your particular brand of humour, Xander. We really must be on our way, we need to get the injured to hospital." He gestured to the girls behind them.

"Could I have a sec'?" Buffy looked at them. Willow took Buffy by the arm.

"I think we have longer than a second. Tire needs changing, won't get far on just the rims."

"There's a spare." Giles said.

"Changing tires, that kind of work requires Slayer strength? But since it's like a ration of 1:10, Buffy should rest up don't you think?" He asked Giles, pointedly.

"Well I do have that potential mortal wound. I think I'll give buses details a miss. Give stuff a chance to sink in." Buffy moved towards the crater. Dawn went to follow, but Giles stopped her with a knowing look. Buffy needed to be alone.

"Spike didn't make. Did he?" Dawn asked, she already knew the answer, and that it wasn't just Spike, it was Anya, Amanda and all the girls she'd never had a chance to really know. Giles put his arm around her, and guided her back towards the bus.

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Thick clouds of smoke bled into the atmosphere, the ash from a dozen fires coating the back of Buffy's throat. Her whole life was at the bottom of a crater; the fire of her old world slowly smouldering to nothing. A new life was waiting for her, but she wasn't quite done mourning her old one.

The sounds of footfall interrupted her silent meditation, they were getting closure before stopping right next to her. She knew who it was. She let the silence pass between the two of them.

"Hi, Xander."

"Hi." Xander fidgeted with his hands, he finally settled on his pockets as the best place to put them.

He'd lost his good mirth and cheer for a second, before it bounded back. "So, one grieving person to another. How you feeling?"

"Bittersweet."

"Yeah, I know. They both came through heroes," He shook his head. "Doesn't make it burn any less though, does it? But then I think she saved Andrew's life…" An uneasiness crept into his voice, he countered with a smile. "Nope that really doesn't help." They both continued to stare over the edge.

"Not gonna jump are you? Because, I don't like it when you do that."

"No, my feet are grounded. Just thinking." He put an arm round her shoulder.

"Would these thoughts be 'anywhere but here' type fantasies?"

"Still, Amy Yip at the Waterslide Park?" Buffy said knowingly, he always used to go for the same one, every time.

"Nope and strangely enough Willow's dream date is no longer John Cusack." He gave Buffy a feeble grin, holding tightly onto it, before it turned on him. None of them were the same, for years they'd been drifting apart, sure they pulled back but it was never like it was in high-school. The silence grew stale; Xander was probably thinking along the same line as she was.

"We've all changed, sometimes I think maybe too much." She kicked a rock into the gap, listen as it hit the sides, she lost the sound of it, on its way down to the bottom. The gash in the land was deep, she wondered if it would ever heal.

"Yeah, we drifted apart for a long time there."

"Think we can get back?"

"Sure we can." Willow walked towards them.

"I'll endorse that, she's the smart one." Xander said.

"Always have always will be," Willow said. "We changed an ancient mystical line; I think that proves we're pretty much good for anything." Willow grinned.

"We've gone through a lot; it's not like we'll ever be who we were." Buffy said, thinking how that was a clearly understatement.

"Yeah," Xander agreed, all wise and Zen. "So how about that trip to the mall? Okay, so it's at the bottom of a crater, but bright side no cues, and all the burnt and crushed merchandises you could ever want." The girls smiled at him - same old Xander.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **2/10

**Rating: **PG-13

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

Xander got onto the bus, sharing a war buddyish look with Dawn, before he sat beside her. Dawn had saved his life today, and kicked some major uber-ass doing it. She guessed those lessons with Buffy, over the summer, had helped after all. _I have the power now, a little bit. _

Giles was trying to get everyone to settle down. He told them that they were going to drive to a nearby hospital in Ventura.

"Shouldn't someone go get Buffy?" Dawn asked.

"She's on her way." Willow assured her, as she took an empty seat.

Dawn couldn't help feeling out of it, everyone was dodging the fact that the bus was so much more roomy than it had been earlier on that morning. She wanted to talk about them, she didn't know why, maybe for it to sink in - or maybe to stop it from sinking in; she wasn't sure.

Andrew was sat across from her; he was quiet, which coming from him was disconcerting. Faith was sitting close by Wood, she was keeping him awake by talking to him, Vi was being the gauze-holding-to-wound part to the team.

Buffy got onto the bus, and Giles smiled at her with fatherly affection. She figured saving the world made him proud of her, in the same way the rare good grade used to her mom.

Buffy flopped down onto a musty, bus-seat next to Willow.

Buffy knew that she'd failed to do what Willow had done, say goodbye to all the died of Sunnydale - Joyce, Tara, Anya…Spike. Buffy wondered what it meant that they didn't have graves.

Giles started the bus up, Buffy hoped that this trip would go better than her last one out of town. She consoled herself to the fact that at least there wouldn't be any Renaissance fair rejects chasing them down on horseback, and it probably wouldn't end with her being catatonic or Dawn being kidnapped by a god.

Buffy turned her head and looked out the back window, it was too sunny for her to see much of anything; she easily lost sight of the smouldering crater.

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Kaci Brooks was full, she'd just railroaded her way through a blueberry muffin, it helped cover-up the swig of vodka she had in the girls bathroom. She'd feigned cramps to get out of gym, and slipped away when the teacher, the one with the jangly whistles and the not nearly enough supported breasts, wasn't looking.

Kaci had moved to Ventura a few months ago, it wasn't far from LA - nothing was too far from her mother who still lived there. It was the same sunny California, same old weather, décor and people; every pore of the town screamed its locale.

As baking as the sun was, a light breeze was compensating; a day that shouldn't be wasted on high school. She thought it would be cool to live in the time of the Chumash, when the earth was sacred and she didn't have to worship the almighty credit card, she wanted to be free of all this crap. She wished there were other ways to pass from immaturity to adulthood, besides having to get good grades so she could go to college and probably drop out, landing a semi-permanent position in the customer-service industry; the entrapment had already begun.

It was second period, she felt shame at being the first to be there, not that she was any better at driver's ed, than any other class. She hoped it wasn't her turn behind the wheel. Poor, mock pedestrian cones tended to get squashed in her wheevy path.

The car park was covered with miss mismatched signs and scored lines. Mr. Watson, middle-aged and balding, stood waiting by the car for his students to show up.

Mr. Watson tapped his pen heavy handed on his clipboard, his impatience was just as good as a declaration of war to Kaci who was in no hurry. Her lack of speed could be attributed to her heels but rebellion was what she going for. He looked away first, shuffled through his notes.

Kaci hopped on a wall nearby, swinging her legs back and forth, smiling to herself, before applying a new coat of lip gloss. Imala, her best friend, was making her away over marching and flushed because of her apparent lateness.

Kaci greeted Imala. "I hate this class," Kaci pouted. "It's just another thing I'm destined to fail, along with gym."

"Driving's less about co-ordination," Imala said. "And more about the sitting on one's butt."

"And swearing and gesticulating when another motorist cuts you off."

"And big cup holders, can't forget those."

It was an on going joke between the two them that Kaci had incentive to learn to drive, so then she could leave. Kaci would always reply that she had a bus pass, if all else failed.

Ali another student approached, at a slow stride. He winked at Kaci, who rolled her eyes. Imala started moving and Kaci reluctantly followed.

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The students buckled their belts, some needing more prompting than others. Imala got behind the wheel, she was confident there. She had done all the checks she needed to do before Mr. Watson had even uttered for her to straighten the mirror or to put the car in drive.

"Take your time, moving round the cones." Mr. Watson's voice droned.

Ali was complaining it was supposed to be his turn today. Kaci told him otherwise, it was clear she had a crush on him but Imala knew not to argue the fact.

"She drives like my grandmother." Ali hooted, he wasn't exactly sharp.

Imala decided to pick up the pace, she knew she was too cautious, it's what people were always telling her, even Kaci who was defending her now.

She put her foot down on the accelerator with practised ease. The car careened out the parking lot, she only put the slightest of force behind it.

"Brake!" Mr. Watson screamed, they all screamed. The car hurtled through the chain link fence, coming to a stop on the main road.

"Is everyone okay?" Mr. Watson crooked, easing the taut seat belt from around his neck. He probably had whip-lash, not the best way to impress a driving instructor. She unclasped her hands from the steering wheel. She looked down puzzled, her fingers had made indentations on the wheel.

Kaci let out a sigh of relief - that was when the truck hit them.

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Metal groaned as it contracted with the cooling air. A girl's body was laid disjointed under a heap of rubble, that had once been a wall from Sunnydale High School. She'd known the power of the Slayer shortly before she'd been crushed.

Though, her blood had long done pumping through her veins, a trail of it inched away from her. It travelled through the wreckage, dust and flames and joined that of others like her. A black mist clung above the gore, before all threads of it seeped into the charred earth below.

It had a crude conscious, that churned with gaining self-awareness as more demonic energy joined it. It couldn't remember its origins, it knew it wasn't part of the older race of demons but that they feared it, for it had killed many of them. All its memories were bound in the souls of the Slayers. It had been there when the first Slayer walked. It had meant to have reincarnated into another girl by now but there wasn't a single girl that was left dormant for it to join with.

There was now girls that shouldn't be Slayers - the ill, old and infantile. Their numbers were too great. It knew its purpose, to ilk out the weak from the strong.

It needed to take form so that it could extinguish life. Flames licked at its misty form. It fashioned itself a shell of a demon, one that had roamed this land. Its hide was thick and molten, crude in a design but perfect for its use.

It took its first step on its legs, it felt steady, it knew it wouldn't fail. This body wouldn't last but it would form a new one when it needed to.

The power it bestowed long ago had become diluted, it couldn't stay that way. Each girl it took would only make it stronger, its spirit would become whole. A change had come to this reality, power had sifted and things could not remain as they were.

Its dark eyes could see the path they'd taken, it could smell them out with its bone like muzzle. Blood it found with its new sense was something it could appreciate, it wanted to spill more of it.

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A/N: Feedback is very welcome, if you have constructive criticism that is fine too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **3/10

**Rating: **PG-13

**Disclaimer: **Joss' world, I'm just visiting.

**A/N:** Thank you to: Dollsom, BuffyBc, Juzblue, Katydid1388 and Little firecracker for their reviews and thank you to my beta noandwhere for all her help.

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_Car... tree... bigger tree... plant, of the shrub variety... signpost... telephone pole... freshly-dead, highway-splattered cat. Dead! _

Obviously, looking out the window at the majesty of the open road wasn't the best way to preoccupy himself, Xander decided. Instead he would wallow openly. At least that way the despair wouldn't suddenly be thrust upon him, by loosely related stimulus.

Anya was gone, just like that; ripped from the earth she'd graced for over a millennia. The life he presumed he and Anya would eventually get back to was now over. He couldn't even remember their last words to one another. The last time he'd seen her, she'd pulled Andrew away sparing them from his Oscar equivalent good-bye speech. He'd only gotten to page one of twelve, of which Xander hoped went down with the school and the rest of his hometown.

Anya would never make a hilariously sarcastic or inappropriate comment again. She would never try to hide her slight hyperventilation whenever Bugs Bunny appeared on screen or hope beyond hope that Elmer Fudd would catch that pesky rabbit. She was dead and no amount of denial would change that.

It occurred to him that he sucked at the brooding, Angel could probably have given him some pointers on the whole thing. He guessed making fun of Angel helped ease the pain, until he realised he'd regained his title as the biggest Angel hater – because Spike was also dead, something else to feel not generally good about too.

_So maybe looking out the window would be the better activity, after all._

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Willow wanted to say something to Buffy, anything to help the situation; she tried ineffectually to script out a good conversation but even then when she imagined it, it seemed to spin out of her control. Instead she sat waiting for the perfect inspiration to hit her but it didn't.

"What is it Willow?" Buffy asked.

Willow realised that she was that transparent - or had Buffy achieved that insightful best friend thing, over the years?

"Nothing." Buffy narrowed her eyes at Willow. "I'm just working towards the best friend speech. You know where I say something to make you evaluate everything and feel better." Willow carried on with her babbling. "I'm big with the knowing what you're going through. I know about the grief. My number one tip, don't try to destroy the world, it loses you the major sympathy votes. And you already ran away that one time, so it would be a cliché."

"I'm not even thinking it, it's different this time, and I haven't exactly got a place left to run from." Willow didn't know if Buffy was putting on a brave face, saving up the water works for later. "I'm okay, Will."

"You're sure?"

Buffy nodded. "I can't feel bad, he did an amazing thing. He's at rest now and maybe he's where I went."

"Heaven?" Willow nodded enthusiastically, at least she hoped that was where he was headed. "You don't sound sure."

"Well..." Buffy shook her head. "Their standards are obviously low, **I** got in." Buffy remembered how certain he'd seemed about his fate. "It was so like him. He completely laughed in the scary face of death, I wouldn't have expected anything else." It was true that it hadn't surprised her; she'd been there herself, swan diving off the tower to save Dawn and the world. That had been why she had let him go so easily, why it seemed right in telling Willow about it. "All those years ago, who'd have thought Spike saving us all."

"Spike kind of came through, makes me feel good and teary too."

Willow tilted her head in the direction of a few of the Slayers. "Isn't it great though that they won't have to face the big scary alone," Buffy nodded. "And Buffy, neither will you."

"You are alone." A voice that shouldn't have struck a cord of fear in anyone did in Buffy. She didn't want to look over at the seat next to her but she did anyway.

Jonathan Levenson smiled at her, there had been no malice in his seemly cruel assessment of her. His smile crumbled with sympathy. "But you weren't, Spike was there with you." Buffy turned away, she didn't want to hear.

She knew it wasn't the First talking, because the chill she got down her spine whenever it was nearby was missing. That meant only one of two things: she was being haunted by a geek or she had gone crazy. "He understood and loved you like nobody else ever will do, it feels that way but it's not true."

"Buffy is everything alright?" Buffy looked over at Willow, for the first time in years she actually saw the love of Willow's friendship reflecting back at her. But she couldn't answer her, not because the presence of Jonathan, now there was only an empty seat where he'd been, but because she didn't know if she was alright or not.

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It wasn't long before they arrived at the hospital. There was only a few who needed serious medical attention. Faith and Xander had both taken Wood in first, then Buffy and Dawn had helped Rona in. The few others were the walking wounded, a few fractures and wounds between them.

All the healthy Slayers had opted to stay on the bus while the others were seen to. Giles and Willow had taken them to find a motel, and to get provisions: clothes, food and water. They'd return in a few hours to collect those at the hospital. Andrew had followed Xander into the hospital like a lost lamb, almost bleating at his heels.

Andrew was alone. He wanted Anya's company, she'd have made a great joke right about now with all the possible imminent death about. It wasn't as bearable as it would have been with her around. When he and Anya had gone for supplies at the abandoned Sunnydale hospital, it was echoey quiet, the wards here were over crowded, dizzy inducing. With Anya gone, he wasn't sure that he could ever be in a hospital again without feeling nostalgic and nauseous all at the same time. Now he was leaning more towards a barfy feeling.

He dodge out of the way of a gurney being pushed by orderlies and doctors, a bloodied teenage girl lay on it. He'd thought he'd seen all injured girls he was going to today.

He felt a bit like he was an episode of ER, but one of the earlier seasons. It wasn't the same without George Clooney…

"Imala, honey everything's going to be okay." A nurse told the girl. They moved down the hallway, Andrew watching them until they went through some double doors.

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Buffy had been given Xander's sacred duty of going to the vending-machine for snacks, he'd given her a chunk of his change - he was more prepared for food gathering than she was.

Dawn had gotten up a little after, to go check on Buffy's progress. When she found Buffy, she was staring at the buttons on the machine, as if she where trying to clarify weither they were a potential enemy or not.

Dawn tapped her on the shoulder and Buffy whirled round in a defensive posture.

"I thought I saw--" Buffy's words trailed off, she scowled at Dawn but then smiled. "Want anything? I know you have a soft spot for the sugar and the E numbers." She said looking into the belly of a vending machine filled with sugary delights.

"No food should ever be florescent purple." Dawn pointed to some candy, humouring Buffy.

"Be glad I heard that sacrilege and not Xander."

Dawn put a soothing hand on Buffy's shoulder.

"Everything **is** going to be okay Dawny." Buffy put a hand to Dawn's hair smoothed it back, and turned back to the snacks. Dawn noticed Buffy wince before putting a hand against her stomach. Dawn had seen blood there earlier, she was going to have to make Buffy go see a doctor.

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Faith was getting pissed with the endless questions from a snotty doctor. He handed her a pen and stack of forms. Xander looked over at Faith, the beginnings of an insult slowly prising her clenched jaw open, words that on completion could have her thrown out of the hospital.

"Ahoy there shipmates, how is the starboard crew fending?" Xander greeted Faith as the doctor left. He added an 'arrrh' for good measures. He was almost enjoying his alternating eye patch jokes, this hour he was going for a pirate theme, next one would be on divine retribution, who didn't love their 'an eye for an eye' part of the bible.

Faith looked over the papers, and had a go at them. "I wouldn't tick that one - means you won't sue if they take a kidney or accidentally hack off an arm."

Xander took the medical papers from Faith, she was happy to part with them. "I have no super-human powers, except with the form filling, I'm a dab hand at that. I was going to say I had an eye for it but that would be slightly inappropriate." He ticked a few boxes and scored things out. "I've had my fair share of forms in my time, many job applications, ordering of building material and hospital admittance papers."

"Anya was alright you know." Faith didn't know that for sure, in fact she had little contact with the ex-demon, all Faith's words on Anya in the past had been a dig.

"Wood is going to be okay, you got a tough guy there or so I'm told." Xander informed her as he turned to leave.

"Xander?" She asked softly, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"Yeah."

"You're one of the good ones." She meant it, why she had said it was beyond her.

"Well so I'm told." He let her off the hook. "Today you were one too. It's not a come on but Wood is a very lucky guy."

"By Sunnydale Principle standards." She joked because nobody had seen her as one of the good guys before. She'd never admit it but it actually made her feel good. She still had the bad girl rep to uphold though, so she couldn't let it show.

"I better go," He said. "Got to make sure Andrew hasn't got himself tangled up in a Slayer's IV tubes or something."

She went over to Robin's bed, took his hand in hers, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She guessed the world was just getting tougher on her, but at least it was still here.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **4/10

**Rating: **PG-13

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

Buffy examined her wound in the bathroom mirror. She didn't think it was healing fast enough, but she stopped herself from prodding at it.

Dawn stepped out of a bathroom stall and washed her hands. The smell of bleach was even worse in here than it was in the rest of the hospital, it reminded Buffy of all the times the two of them had spent inside a hospital. The doctors couldn't save her mom; Buffy couldn't save her mom - she hoped Robin Wood and the girls all did better.

Buffy thought she'd seen someone else in the hallway, someone she hadn't been able to save - Cassie - but then again it could have been some other girl, all she'd seen was the back of her head.

"You should go get that looked at." Dawn said, shaking water off her hands.

"It's nothing." Buffy said and yanked her shirt back over her wound.

"Well nothing looks like it's about to hemorrhage all over the floor." Dawn had already told her to get it looked at by a professional; Buffy couldn't think of anyone more acquainted with woundage than herself but Dawn wasn't about to give up, Buffy knew this because they were both the same in that respect.

"I've taken worse, much worse." Buffy made her way to the door.

"I just want to take care of you."

"I'm the one who's supposed to be take care of you."

"Well you aren't going to if you're dead," Dawn said. "You're not a good care-giver when you're dead." Buffy looked at Dawn, she sometimes forgot that Dawn was so young, with all that they'd been through, Buffy also had to be reminded that she was still young herself.

"Buffy your hand!" Dawn caught sight of Buffy's burn, she lifted her palm slowly into the light, it would heal. "You need to get it looked at." Buffy rolled her eyes. "What happened?"

"Got set on fire." Buffy said, her eyes gradually meet Dawn's. Dawn seemed to be looking for more of an explanation.

Buffy gave in. She couldn't deal with the interrogation of the century she knew would come otherwise. "I touched Spike's hand, our hands ignited." She paused. "I didn't let go, straight away." She didn't feel comfortable with the conversation. Her feelings were as raw as they had ever been. She wasn't ashamed that she had loved Spike, it had been love - she'd been sure enough to tell him after all but still she'd never felt comfortable putting that particular word to anything. It was a word so over used, it been burnt to a crisp, much worse than her hand could ever have been.

"I forgave him," Dawn admitted. "I thought that you should know that."

"So you didn't hate him, because all the things you said before were convincing--"

"No, hello former head of the Spike fan club." Dawn smiled wickedly lighting the mood. "You know I liked him first. You totally stole him from me. Just like RJ at school."

"That was a spell, plus I'm the pretty one." Buffy's mouth twitched reluctantly into a grin.

"Mom always said I was the pretty one."

"So, a fake memory, constructed by the monks to make you feel better because I'm hotter than you."

"You're just over compensating for your hair." Dawn said. "You have mom hair!"

"At least I don't have big bug eyes."

"I do not." Dawn blinked in horror."I missed this."

"The petty name calling." Buffy said, knowing exactly what her sister meant.

"A little. I miss us being like real sisters." She straightened Buffy's hair around her face. "So let's make a deal, we both take care of one another."

Was that how it could work between them?

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Giles and Willow took the other Slayers across town, to stay at the cheapest and most apathetic hotel they could find. A group their size would bring up questions Willow knew wouldn't be easily explained away.

They all bunched together into a tiny room, like sardines or cockroaches - Willow thought she might have seen a cockroach scurry to shadow when they ventured across the parking lot. Willow couldn't see anyone in charge, or at least with a 'my name is…' badge.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Kennedy's hand pounded on the little bell, waiting for all of three seconds before leaning right over the counter to see if she could spot anyone herself. She caught sight of a motel clerk in her own little world, romance novel in hand. Kennedy coughed and the women looked up annoyance evident on both their faces. The woman's face quickly folded into a smile, as she stood up and strode towards the counter.

The clerk, Gina or so her name tag claimed, looked round at the whole group. "Quite a family you've got?"

"We're Mormons. You know big with monogamy but to several wives not just the one, more like five." Willow stammered, the woman gave her a put out look.

"Okay, not asking for your life's stories." Gina looked more than ready to go back to her book. "How many rooms do you want?"

She searched the group for someone besides Willow or Kennedy to address, her eyes flicked to Giles, deciding he was the one she get the most sense from. Kennedy took offence to her rejected authority.

"How many you got?" Kennedy asked cutting Giles off.

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Buffy sat on her back porch, 1630 Revello Drive, it seemed for hours.

She knew if she was to just go inside she'd find it in the same condition as the porch. There wouldn't be a single sign of a potential Slayer's sleeping bag and maybe her mother would be there. She'd be sitting on the couch doing a crossword puzzle or helping Dawn with her homework. It would be home, hers, her mom's and Dawn's, there would be nobody else to intrude on them.

Still she couldn't go inside, the place was only a dead shell. She wanted to be there all the same but all that was a lie, Dawn was never meant to be and her mom was long dead and their home would be nothing more than dust and ash. If she went in there,it would mock her with its beauty and simplicity of years past. She couldn't face those ghosts; semicolon let them be locked in there, where they were happy and safe.

The wooden boards groaned under the weight of heavy boots. Spike always showed up when she couldn't bear the loneliness.

He sat down on the step next to her. The faint acidic tang of smoke and old beaten leather followed him. He tilted his head up towards the sky his features bathed in light. The morning was a good look for him.

"Sky seems like it should be cloudy." She said, looking up with him

"Doesn't look it, but it is."

She heard noises from her kitchen, people talking, with voices she once knew. Dawn and her friends; she had stood by them, against them and so much of both, but now, what was now?

"It's not just that they need you, you need them, they're you're family."

"Maybe I don't want that, not anymore." She noticed how close his hand was to hers but he didn't reach towards her.

"World's at your feet, not on your shoulders, so it's entirely up to you."

"I have choice. I was never good with multiple choice questions before."

He looked away. "You know that I have to--." He nodded toward where the garden ended and night started, where the neat back-yard ended a thicket of trees sprung. The moon above it was dampened by mist.

She looked him square in the eyes. "Go? I knew that one." She signalled him to go-ahead with a swipe of her arm. She let him leave. He stopped for a moment, shoulders tense, comma but he never looked back at her.

She looked towards her back door. She couldn't tell what they were saying, it could have been a different language. If she did follow Spike, who'd take care of them - she went anyway.

She moved into a clearing, branches and rotted vegetation gave under foot.

"Your friends aren't here." Spike said, and she shrugged.

"Maybe that's why I'm here."

She took Spike's hand in hers, the pain hit and she had to let go like before and his hand slipped from hers.

Buffy turned back to look at the house - the roof and brick of home holding the warmth within. She shivered.

Her home was closer than she realised was. She could see through the kitchen window. They were all sat around eating breakfast, a place was serset for her.

_They're waiting for me. Do I want that? _Her mind was already made for her, the woods and Spike were already gone.

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"Buffy." Dawn said and tugged on Buffy's arm, jarring her closer to consciousness.

Buffy's eyelids slid open. Her vision came into focus to be dazzled by the lights of the hospital, she hoped that, that image wouldn't be burned on the back of her retinas for all eternity.

"Hah?" Buffy finally gasped.

"You nodded off." Dawn said.

Buffy noticed Xander standing to the side of them. On meeting their gazes Xander seemed to yank himself out his obvious grief, if only for a second.

"Nice nap Buff." He grimaced, something that could have been interpreted as a grin, by somebody who didn't know him. "You spoiled anyone else's chance to get some rest, all that snoring you did."

"I don't snore." Buffy said. She looked at the clock on the wall - Giles would be back soon to pick them up. She needed some air.

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Hospitals were not good things, okay they patched people up but Faith knew there were things about a person that could never get fixed.

A nurse had made a crack about her being the doting girlfriend as she sat at Robin's bedside; Faith had to leave at that point. She doubted the woman would be looking so adoringly on the couple if she'd known one of them was a murderer.

She lit herself another cigarette; it was her last one, she cursed a future when she would be without nicotine. It calmed her nerves, and she needed that. She exhaled.

A door opened behind her before it was closed with care. She turned to see Buffy leaning back against the door with her head tilted back.

"It hurts like hell, right?" Faith speculated aloud. Buffy noticed her for the first time and came over.

"Like something flammable and searing, other than that, I'm 5 by 5."

"My phrase, what does it mean to you?"

"I'm not sure, which fits." She finally made eye contact with Faith. "How's Wood doing?"

"They say fine, but he's not woken up yet, probably all the drugs they're pumping through him."

"Wood's a great guy," Buffy smiled at her. "Maybe you need that."

Faith mashed her cigarette on the wall. "Yeah, maybe."

"You could try and make it work, wacky idea I know." Faith wondered not for the first time in her life if the entire world was conspiring against her. She'd been told in prison she thought like that too much. But everyone seemed to be pushing the couple angle with her.

"You know me, always up for a challenge." Buffy sat next to Faith on the wall, they just sat - neither wanted to speak the next words

"I shouldn't have left him, Spike I mean." Buffy confessed. Faith wondered how things might have been different, if she and Buffy had ended up friends, they'd probably never be but it didn't stop Faith from being able to understand Buffy if only vaguely.

"He wasn't going to leave." Faith said. "And he would have wanted you to go on. You know you did what you should, first rule to being a Slayer is not dying." Faith's sympathy turned to smugness. "And on last count you've died twice, does that make me the better Slayer?"

"Don't push it."

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**A/N:** Thank you to Dollsome, BuffyBc and AscaDuin for reviewing my last chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **5/10

**Rating: **PG-13

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

Buffy and the others had left. Faith had stopped at the hospital because of Robin; it was the right thing to do - she'd resisted the surge of energy in her legs, the panic urging her to run away from the responsibility. She felt a little better after getting some fresh air, and cigarette - even without college learning she figured out the irony in that. With the new Slayer regime, she might actually get a chance to die from lung cancer after all.

Faith lingered in the hospital corridors, wandering in the general direction of Robin's room; after picking up an extraordinarily bad cup of coffee. She looked into the room, Robin was still sleeping.

When she's been laid in her bed in her a coma, months spent motionless - trapped in nightmares cooked up by her own mind. She hoped he was alone in there, no monster of his own stalking him.

She took another sip of her coffee and that was enough. She spotted a bin in the room across. She dumped the contents of the cup in there, some of it splashed onto her jeans, she cursed - that was when she noticed a woman hovering over a girl's bed, mother and daughter, at a guess. Faith's own mother would have never looked over her like that, no wonder she was struggling with caring about someone, it was the thing absent while she was growing up.

"Uhhh, sorry didn't know anyone was in here."

"She was in a car crash."

"Yeah…" Faith wasn't sure if the woman was talking to her.

"She the only one…" Faith knew the girl wasn't, girl even those not supernaturally inclined were being picked off all the time. "They said it was miracle - one of them was her best friend, are they going to tell her parents the same?" She looked to Faith for an answer; people kept doing that and Faith didn't know why. She wasn't the hero - she was never the hero.

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The motel was anything besides picturesque, Willow didn't want to think about all the human disasters and demon horrors the place had seen, the place being a major pit stop before the Hellmouth.

Despite the crappiness of her surroundings Willow hadn't felt this light-hearted in ages. Apocalypses always gave her a new lease on life, not just with the not dying part - well the not dying for the most of it - all the petty stuff dropped away and you could be glad you were alive.

She missed the Hellmouth, stranger things had happened. It had been her home after all, in the way that Spike and Anya had been her friends. She hadn't always understood them or even liked them but they'd been family, in the way that they all were. She'd miss some aspects of them, like she would Sunnydale.

She had the ability to bring all of it back, but she couldn't. She was on her good witchy path now - no forks in the road for her. This was what Tara would have wanted, Willow wanted it too. She wanted to be the person Tara must have seen she could be, not with the magic but the good naturedness - her Willowness.

She still missed Tara, being with Kennedy hadn't changed that. She wasn't sure how things would turn out but right now they were looking on the good side of things. As much as Willow had been reluctant to move on, she had to.

She knew it was hard to go through, both Xander and Buffy had it to come. She was worried about them, not that she thought they'd go off the deep end like she had but just how they'd manage.

Tomorrow, they'd all be headed out to LA, Giles had suggested that they go there and Willow had offered to phone Angel, he did after all have a big hotel with hundreds of empty rooms, just seemed like too much good math to ignore. She didn't feel comfortable inviting herself, the remnant of the Sunnydale crew and dozens of Slayers . She knew they probably wouldn't mind, particularly, because, hey, she'd re-ensouled their boss and all.

She had a bit of trouble finding a phone and after looking around the place, she acutally found a working one. The majority were out of order, through neglect or vandalism.

Willow dialled a not so familiar number, she put the receiver to her ear and waited, the phone rang four times before someone picked up.

"Hello." Lorne spoke like he was expecting it to be a helpless client with a hellish demon problem. She always noticed how business in the under world naturally slumped over the summer. She guessed demons all went on vacation, that or they couldn't take the heat.

"Hi Lorne."

"Hey there Willow." He replied his chirpiness levels rising a couple dozen notches. "Good to hear from you sweet pea how you been keeping."

"Um, fine." She said taken back by the joyful voice. His demeanour reminded her a little of Clem, once you switched the floppy ears and wrinkles, with a green complextion and horns. "Actually we averted an apocalypse."

"That's wonderful, you're doing a better job than we are. We might have ended a little thing called world peace." He laughed, with some level of shame.

"I'm not one to judge, I nearly ended the world last year."

"So what can we do for you? We're sort of indebted to you saving the world and all."

"We kind of need a place to stay - you having a hotel." She went on further with the explanation. "The Hellmouth went boom, no more Sunnydale."

"Of course you can stay, there's always room for you at the inn, darling. Now sweetheart, what's the word on Buffy and Faithy, Angel's been moping about the place, he's good at it - he's perfected his craft over the last few centuries."

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Lorne finished up talking with Willow, he'd liked the girl when only hearing about her but she was even more of a gem in person. And talk about powerful, she didn't even have to sing her big old heart out for him to know that. And now he was going to meet all of them; Wesley and Cordy had been telling stories about them for years, Angel less so but he knew what Buffy meant to the big lug.

Lorne breezed into the main lobby, they were sat around in they're preoccupations.

Angel had been sifting through old case files, adamant they be sorted before the big move to Wolfram and Hart. He'd managed to rope the others into helping. Fred and Gunn were sat on the floor; a chaos of books and paper scattered round them, Wesley was sat behind the counter, his reading glass glued to his face with concentration. Angel was pacing untouched case files in hand.

None of them looked up to acknowledge Lorne's presence. Well this wouldn't do, his big announcement needed their full and undivided attention.

"Hey we better get some beds made up. Sunnydale kept their corner of the sky safe." _Yep, that got their attention._

"They're headed over, here?" Angel looked at him.

Lorne knew what Angel's immediate thoughts were. "Yes miss Slayer pants made it through. She's alive in that 'oh my god, sound of music way. Okay, so maybe not in the musical way of things but still poetic license here! Give the demon, me, my dues." _Nothing. _"They won the war against the…" He waved off his lack of information. "They're all in the homeless way of thing and us being good Samaritans and all I said they could stay at the hotel." A rapid succession of blinks followed, taking their time to digest the information.

"Who was it you talked to?" Fred asked her interest was quick to form.

"The Wicca of the moment."

"Willow." Angel nodded at the others.

"Yes, didn't I just say that?" Lorne pointed out.

"Did she say anything else?" Fred stood up giving Angel a reassuring smile and pat on the arm.

"Not much just that she was okay and that the Hellmouth was out of commission."

"How?" Wesley asked.

"She didn't really go into details. They'll be here tomorrow, you can have a boring discussion about it then, hopefully I won't be around or I'll have a very large drink in my hands."

"Well I guess we all should get with the bed making." Gunn said.

"It's like we're a real hotel." Fred said and smiled at him, they were getting to something near friend-like again.

Lorne sighed. "As long as I don't have to do any heavy lifting or physical labour." They'd already started to move, paper work and him forgotten. Lorne shrugged his shoulder following them. _They'd miss me if I was gone. Right, I'll just keeping telling myself that._

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Booph... booph... booph... booph... Robin Wood became dimly aware of the steady rhythm of his heart, coming from the ECG machine. This meant he was alive to some extent. He wondered if this was his last hanger on sense, maybe the other had gone but he became aware of the pungent, signature smell of hospital bleach and a faint coppery taste at the back of his throat and an ache-y drowsiness.

He couldn't feel anything below his neck. It should have terrified him but he was just grateful that he couldn't feel the pain. He was sure it was the drugs, he couldn't remember any injury that he substained that could have cuased her paralysis. His eye lids wouldn't open, the mind was willing but the body was reluctant and darn right stubborn.

He heard the flickering of blinds - open, shut, open, shut. He forced his eyes open at last, glad for it. It was Faith, equal parts of boredom and apprehension coloured her movements. She seemed different when she thought nobody was watching; more peaceful maybe the Slayer part of her just was on vacation when she didn't need it? She was surprisingly a puzzle, nothing else these days was to him.

She turned suddenly catching his eyes. "Decided to join the world of the not so unconscious?"

"I don't like being cooped up in the hospital. You're lucky I decided to stay." She said. "Didn't think you we're gonna de-vegetate this side of forever, by the look of all the machines they've got you hooked up to."

"I wonder if I can get cable for this thing?" He strained to look at the machine beside his bed.

"I know a guy who can get you sorted outbut its not totally legal."

"I bet." He smiled and took her hand into his. "Where is everyone?"

"At the nearby flea bag motel, not unlike me of my old place." She said as if living out an old memory.

He tried to sit up. "Wouldn't think hospitals were your thing."

"I spent the better and worse part of eight months a coma in the hospital."

"Have I been out long?"

"Enough for two nurses to leave their numbers, one was real old and one was a guy."

"Was he cute?"

"No, so a threesome can't be your next surprise." Faith disentangled his hand from hers. "I should probably check in with the others, tell them that you're okay."

"Alright…" He wanted her to stay but she was gone, before he could think of anything to say to her.

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Thanks to Dollsome, BuffyBc, AscaDuin and -J for reviewing.


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **6/10

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

Buffy thrust her motel door shut with her elbow, and it gave a satisfying crack as it hit the wall.

The Slayers were all checked in; it taken a while to arrange them into groups in which they were least likely to squabble, because with Slayers it was never just hair pulling.

Buffy had hated how her home had been swarmed with the girls, all their mess and trivial arguments, but she'd been finding their loudness a welcome distraction, the louder the better, making up for all the missing ones. Here she was though? Alone; she'd chosen for it to be that way. She'd taken a dark room that smelt of cheap air fresheners hiding the stench of who knew what and a shower covered in mould - instead of a game of cards with her friends.

Willow had invited her to join them but she didn't feel up to it. Willow had given her a few things to think about. In her absence it been decided by Giles that they'd be staying with Angel in LA. They wouldn't be leaving till late tomorrow due to Willow sensing a Slayery vibe in town. Willow had said that she could feel them awakening everywhere but Buffy hadn't guessed that it would be so close to home, without them knowing already. Willow was cautious of doing another spell so soon after the one today. She was going to do a relocating spell tomorrow - when she wasn't so exhausted, and Buffy could relate to that.

She laid down on the bed, closed her eyes; she tried to imagine a less spongy mattress and tried not to think how it was the first time in days she'd slept in a bed alone. Faith had said something about sleeping for a week. Buffy wasn't sure of that - a few years seemed more to her liking.

She could just disappear - the world wasn't in short supply of Slayers, whatever the death toll of today might have her feeling. She was one in a very huge crowd - that made it easy to disappear.

The dead of Sunnydale hadn't disappeared - she was sure she'd seen Cassie and Jonathan had spoken to her; people overlooked all their lives - now making themselves known. Why them?

Maybe it wasn't them maybe she was crazy. She decided to ignore her new possible found psychosis, if anyone could do it she could. Not seeing what was in front of her, had always been a talent of hers. You ignore something until it goes away, or becomes invisible like a girl ignored by her classmates, the school that took no notice of her was gone. Maybe Buffy saw them so that they and Sunnydale weren't completely gone.

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Andrew looked at the cards in his hands, he needed the ten of clubs - he had the other three tens; a three, four and five in one suit and a King of Hearts. He'd been playing a good game of rummy and not winning - someone was cheating - he was sure of it. He'd so far crossed Kennedy off , she was watching TV with some of the other girls. It couldn't be Willow, she hadn't come back from her talk with Buffy, yet. That left Xander, Dawn and Giles.

It probably wasn't Xander, it wasn't his nature to cheat - and he'd yet to win a game. Giles had motive, he was a bad loser - he'd seen evidence of that the night before and he was all means to the end guy. Dawn was a teenage and therefore morally iffy to begin with. They both had sufficient intellect to do it.

Andrew had always been good at whodunits as a kid. People at school were always going missing, or dead or turning up to school one less limb than the day before. He had known stuff about demons and magic all his life - he figured it was why he'd survived the longest out of the trio and his graduating class. The point was, he was always right in guessing what had happened to them, but you couldn't make an arrest against vampires or demons.

Dawn smiled and lay down her winning hand. She also had a king of hearts. _Stupid motel cards!_

"Giles, Dawn keeps cheating make her stop."

"Hey!" Xander stopped in the middle of massaging his temple. "Could you quiet it down, I've got a migraine the size of a crater where my home once was."

Andrew winced apologetically, now Xander was all mad at him.

"I'm beginning to think suggesting a game of cards was folly on my part." Willow lifted a questioning eyebrow at the long suffering Giles as she came through the door.

She snuggled up next to Kennedy on the far bed, who was watching TV with two of the other Slayers, Shanno and Heidi - they'd not been suspects, though they had played a few hands.

"Is Buffy not joining us?" Giles asked.

"No." Willow said she seemed defeated, Kennedy squeezed her hand, Willow smiled back. _They're too cute for words at least someone got a happy ending._

Xander dealt out some more cards.

"Who's winning?" Willow whispered to Kennedy.

"Not Andrew."

"I could be winning if people would stop cheating." Andrew glared at Giles. "We could have been playing D and D if you hadn't thrown it into the trash." Andrew folded his arms with an attempt at being menacing. He'd found his game that morning all screwed up.

"I did us all an immense favour by doing so."

"You're a poor loser."

"That game happens to be the worst ever devised by man." It was illogical, that someone as smart as Giles couldn't grasp D and D.

"Didn't your country invent cricket?"

"A game for gentleman, I wouldn't suppose that means anything to you."

"We could always play a different game." Willow said, trying to calm them down.

"There's always strip poker." Kennedy suggested.

"My patch counts as an article of clothing, right?"

The gang's attemptedt intervention was having no affect, Andrew and Giles were still arguing cricket vs. Dungeons and Dragons.

"It takes skill, no rolling a dice and praying for the best outcome. Actual technique, not some childish game played by grown men in their basements."

"One person's basement is another one's bitchin' underground lair."

"I'm talking about something that has historical merit, it teaches self-control and teamwork, it's--."

"It's snobby slow baseball!" Andrew yelled, cutting of Giles calm explanation.

Faith cleared her throat at the door everyone turned to look a at her.

"Faith, is everything fine back at the hospital?"

"Yeah, fine." Giles stood and followed her out onto the motel balcony.

Giles escaped out of the conversation of which he was one step away of being shown up as a no-knowing fraud. Andrew figured he'd won the debate round, he hoped Giles battered ego didn't affect his chances of ever becoming a full fledged Scooby.

--------

Giles was eager to hear about Wood's condition. He'd been there when Wood had been attacked. It had been on his mind - when the situation with Buffy wasn't prying on his mind.

"How is Robin?" Giles asked.

"Awake." Faith answered. Giles didn't know how to respond to the brevity of her words, he knew he wasn't meant to. "And Buffy seemed fine?" He wanted to speck with her but the opportunity hadn't presented itself as of yet. He wanted to know if Spike's death had refreshed in her mind his involvement in the plot to originally kill Spike.

"We had a chat, if you're asking is she cut up over Spike, I guess."

"It's expected. I tried to kill him, Robin and I." He admitted.

"I heard," She said and shook her head, a lot had gone on during her incarceration. A lot happened on a Hellmouth, Giles understood her amusement at all that had happened. "Spike brought her back to the fold, after we chucked her away - we're such lucky bastards on that."

Giles nodded.

"Anyway, I'm, I don't know, restless. Thinking of going on a patrol, hoping that when the demons fled they didn't get that much distance from the Hellmouth, might catch them with there pants down." She seemed to be waiting for some sort of approval.

"Hmmm," Giles wasn't used to be consulted as a Watcher, at least not by a Slayer - he was going to have to get used to it. He'd never been good at asserting his authority over Buffy, but she'd never been a typical Slayer; she was exceptional. "Yes, you might take some of the girls with you."

"Giles, you out of all people you know I don't play well with others."

"Are you certain it's the best idea, going alone, we don't know much about the area and there could be all manner of--."

"Giles, don't start caring. Do us both a favour, leave all you warm Watcher fuzzes for Buffy, besides cooped up ain't my style all this roof and fire ain't doing a thing for me."

He looked at her, his eyebrows scrunched in mild shook. Faith was quoting literature.

"Good prison library, they educate us enough so we know our place." Giles didn't know if she was joking, his wit was dry but hers was lacking or completely dehydrated, he suspected it was the latter.

"Be careful." He said and she seemed to consider it.

"Never." She jumped over the railing and was gone.

"I know the oddest girls."

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Willow was quiet, she could be sometimes - when she was worried; when she was nervous she babbled.

"Buffy will be fine, she a Slayer, we're more than a little tough." She knew Kennedy was right.

Willow had her head on Xander's shoulders, he was chatting at a temped speed to her. Kennedy wasn't showing any signs of jealousy - even knowing her past with Xander.

"Too bad I didn't lose an eye sooner I could have got a snazzy glass eye on my insurance. Construction work has a high eyeball losage rate."

"How?" Dawn asked.

"Holding the nail gun the wrong way, just takes that one time."

"We get it you only have one eye." Willow said affectionately. She still felt guilty having said it, she still had the image of it lodged in her brain - despite not having been there.

"I forget you guys see and hear about it. I'm avoiding the mirror myself." He replied self-consciously, vulnerable Xander was equally lovable and pitiful to her.

"Dawn wins again." Xander pointed out, nobody was really paying attention.

"I think she made a pact with the devil." Andrew said.

"We should burn her at the stake, like the pilgrims did." Kennedy added as she took some of Andrew's popcorn.

"Oh no gives me the belly rumblings." Willow said with a shudder. Kennedy waited for an explanation. "Right well me, Buffy and Amy had this whole problem back in senior year - we were accused of witch craft, it was this whole spell thing, which made everyone super paranoid about the occult and see not real dead kids who wanted them to kill us."

"Mom locked me in my room when it was happening. I had nightmares about it for weeks."

"Poor Dawny." Willow said sitting up.

"It would make it better if we played another game of cards - beating Andrew is fun and we could bet for snacks."

"Right, when you're with the compulsive cheating." Andrew said.

Xander had his own theories about the cheating. "Fess up Dawnster, Spike taught you a great strategy for cheating, right?"

"No, Spike knew if he taught me to cheat Buffy would have kicked his ass more than per usual. It was Anya who was the capitalist master of the card decks." She regretted her words as soon as she saw the look on Xander's face.

That look was why people had avoided her name for the last few hours. Dawn hadn't realised speaking it would be like a incantation. Willow knew somebody had to say that they were sorry or show some remorse to break it. But Xander left the room before that could happen - he'd never had patience for magic.

"I should go and check on him." Andrew said.

"He shouldn't be alone." Willow said. Andrew clambered out of the room after the quickly retreating Xander. Willow didn't like it, she should have been the one to go.

--------

Andrew was the last person Xander felt like talking to. He knew the resentment he felt towards him was unfair, but it was unfair that Andrew had lived and Anya hadn't.

"Xander?" Andrew called after him. Xander ignored him, hoping he'd get the message and let him be on his own or that one of them would evaporate into thin air.

"It helps to talk about stuff that's bothering you, like this one time this guy was bulling me at school and my brother Tucker taught me this real neat curse." Xander stopped listening to Andrew's aimless story, that wasn't hitting any point. He figured Andrew came from a more dysfunctional family than his own, it should had made him sympathise but it just reminded him of the reasons nothing ever good lasted in his life.

"Go away Andrew." Xander said, it sounded like a warning even to himself.

"I'm sorry." Andrew mumbled, it was an amazement that Andrew could actually pick up on something he done wrong for a change.

"You should have been the one to die. You killed your best friend, you should be the one not her." Xander felt himself crying.

"Yeah I know. What good am I. Anya knew stuff, she was smart and brave. And though I'm not supposed to tell anyone she loved humans." Xander turned away. He'd been looking for somebody to blame, he'd found it but it no longer seem important that he yell at Andrew. What good could come from it, none. Andrew looked like he wanted to say more but something else caught his attention, the same something that had Xander's. "Do you smell burning?"

"Yeah."

They heard a woman screaming. Xander didn't know how to deal with all that he was feeling but he knew this, this was what they did.

--------

BuffyBc and AscaDuin - thanks for the reviews.


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author: **Aurey09

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire.

**Chapter: **7/10

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

"Urhh, what's that smell?" Dawn stepped back from the door that lead to the motel-clerks office. Dawn might not have guessed what the smell was but Willow knew instantly. It was what she smelt when she burnt what was left of Warren. She was pretty sure if she lived long enough, even at her most senile she'd remember it. She'd be the only one in the nursing home who could claim to have flayed and flambéed a guy.

"A body, nobody said anything about a body!" Dawn said. Willow squeezed her arm, she felt responsible for Dawn when Buffy wasn't around.

"It's us, how could you not expect there to be a body somewhere down the line?"

Giles was looking over the remains of Gina, the rude clerk who'd given them all their room keys. Giles had switched the feeling part of himself off, the part that had encountered the woman. Andrew was moving around the room intent on clue gathering. He'd been watching a lot of CSI lately.

Willow's foot nudges the edge of a book, it was the one she'd seen Gina reading. It was now a charred wreck like she was. Willow picked it up, it still felt warm. "Guess it was a steamy read after all."

"It could have been human combustion." Giles looked towards Willow. Buffy wasn't there so it made Willow second in command she guessed - she hated that.

"Hmmm what do we have here?" Giles said as he pried a letter opener from the skeletonised hand, holding it to the light like a newly found treasure.

"Looks like a letter opener, new-fangled thing all the kids are using." Dawn said.

Giles sighed, giving Dawn a disappointed look. The two of them had been getting on lately, Dawn becoming more vital in researching but she was still trying to be Xander's protégée at flippant comment making.

"There appears to be some kind of substance on it," It was some kind of liquid swirled with colour, like the spills left on the roads by leaky gasoline tank. "It's all sticky." Giles grumbled and tried in vain to remove it.

There was some more of it over on the wall where Andrew was looking.

"I wonder what it is."

"It's demons blood, an Ukobach demon." Andrew said, shaking his finger rapidly in a futile attempt to dislodge it. They all looked at him with surprise, Andrew had actual knowledge. "When I was twelve my uncle summoned one - his store was going under and he needed it burning down for the insurance money. They tend to pretty much burn whatever is put in front of them: homework, my brother's Deep Space Nine novels--."

"Giles, why's Andrew explainy guy – that's you rightful place." Xander didn't seem to approve of this shift.

"I'm not familiar with the species." Giles admitted to Andrew.

"Who cares that you haven't been formally introduced," Xander said, Giles was a little taken aback by Xander's harsh tone.

"I merely haven't come across one before."

"Not in all the books you've been through. You just looked at all the semi-nude engravings didn'tcha."

"No, I believe that was you."

"She must have been strong, stabbing a Ukobach would be like trying to cut open the Thing." Giles seemed lost with the explanation but Willow understood the situation even better than Andrew did. No normal person could slice through the demon's thick hide.

"She was a Slayer." Willow said, eyes still on the charred corpse. It was what the facts pointed and her gut pointed towards. The demon felt like it was her fault. Magic - there was always consequences and maybe this demon was it.

----------

Andrew arranged a protective circle in the middle of the motel floor. That was the end to Giles' cleaning deposit but it was for the greater good. Giles was trying to be patient with him, he was finally being useful; it was a challenge.

"Now you're sure that this is the spell to track the demon?" Giles asked Andrew.

"Does Teal'c know about the Goa'uld?"

"You're like a child."

"Giles." Willow called from the open door.

"You've saved my life." He smiled someone else to talk to whom he shared some kind of common language with.

"I saved one life, I don't think that cancels out the one I just caused." Giles couldn't bear to see her like this. She'd lost a lot of confidence in herself last year and had been slowly been getting it back since.

She sat down on one of the beds. "I can't help thinking this demon is connected. This is the biggest spell I've ever done, it took more magic than bringing Buffy back and that made a demon."

"You could have but we still did the right thing."

"So why do I feel all jumped out of the frying-pan and into the fire?"

"We will find this thing and we will stop it."

----------

Dawn was standing with Willow and Xander in the motel parking lot. Giles was calling the cops and Andrew was finishing setting up a locator spell to find the Ukobach demon.

Dawn and Xander were keeping out of the way. She figured they thought she couldn't handle seeing that girl, but it had only been her stomach that almost couldn't handle it. She'd seen bodies before, of people she loved and as horrifying as the sight of that woman had been - it could never touch the anguish of having seen Tara bloodied on the ground, or her mother in the morgue, or her sister lying dead at the foot of a tower.

Kennedy and some of the girls walked back over. They'd been off looking for Faith and the demon. They'd found no more than what Dawn had just standing there.

"We need to get Buffy." Xander said. He stopped when nobody followed and a Mexican wave of glances passed between them. "Fine, you waste your time searching for Faith and doing spells, but I'm waking Buffy."

"Xander." He turned to look at Willow in case she had changed her mind. "We can't always run to Buffy."

"She want us to come to her with something like this." Dawn wasn't liking this, she wasn't sure who she was supposed to agree with.

"She seemed all slayed out to me." Kennedy said. It wasn't the best thing to get between Xander on something like this, on all things Buffy he was very clear. And he'd not been fighting all these years against the dark side, he'd been fighting because of Buffy. "She's been the slayer - what ten years?"

"More like eight, you punched your clock in twelve hours ago."

"I'm not saying it to be mean. But maybe she doesn't see things all so clear - come on you saw what she was like with Spike."

"Willow's not exactly pristine, Spike never almost destroyed the world."

"Hey! I went all good and glowy."

"You're the example."

"You were big with the mutiny too or did you happily forget that. You all agreed you didn't trust her judgement anymore."

"Kennedy." Willow said which was enough to stop her. "I think it's best if I talk to Xander."

They walked away, but the distance wasn't enough to calm him.

"I know you're trying to help. Buffy doesn't need this."

"She's right Xander." Dawn said and he nodded his head.

"Maybe I don't need this either."

----------

It was Faith's lucky night, she'd found a cemetery teeming with vampires. She wasn't wrong about them not venturing far away from the Hellmouth. Though the ones she faced now seemed new, they probably hadn't heard about Slayers or at least not her. They seemed arrogant, which made the whole opportunity of destroying them all the more appealing. The ring leader a cheap blonde, dogly in life and even more so in death was the first to attack. She hit Faith in the gut and Faith used to momentum to roll herself on the floor; a cat playing mouse.

The stake in her pocket snapped under her weight, the vamp picked up on it thinking she'd made a spinal cord go snap.

When she got closure Faith kicked her in the jaw. "Now that's what a snapping bone sounds like." Faith was having fun and only just warming up.

Blondie tried to rush her. "You already got your chance." The don't-mess-with-me-wisdom Faith was trying to impart was lost at the end of a stake.

She eyed the other vampires, but she'd been too good of a teacher. They took off into some woods, a place full of pre-made stakes. It was too easy. These vampire were nothing, not with what she'd clashed with today. But a fight was a fight and she wasn't about to let them off the hook. She wondered through the trees - so maybe this was more their playfield than hers because she couldn't find them.

Smoke was coming from somewhere, vamps wouldn't have stopped for a quick cigarette break - there was too much of it and then there was the screaming. Something else was out here. It was confirmed by a strange growling noise as the screams died.

She knew she should go back, get Buffy and some of the others but it could do a lot of damage before then and Faith could do a lot of damage to it. She had it handled she had survived so far without backup.

A flicker of light caught the corner of her eyes; it had found her first.

She turned around and it was crouched. It was smarter than she'd taken it for as if reading her mind it's mangled jaws turned up at the ends.

"I'll tear that smile right off--"

It barrelled into her with its full weight and something went crack in her chest, a different sound when it was your own. She wheezed for breath on the ground and the air that she managed to get into her lungs was hot. She wasn't going to get to finish her insult to it. _That__'s why Buffy talks fast, get the quip out as soon as possible - or at least before a demon knocks you down. _

She lay on the ground trying to get away. It looked at her for a few seconds more before it's interest waned and it stalk away, burning up anything that got in its way.

That's what it was to be the mouse?

----------

Thank you BuffyBc and AscaDuin for the reviews, I appreciate it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Author:**Aurey09

**Part One:** Things Born of Fire

**Chapter: **8/10

**Disclaimer: ** Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

**A/N:** Thanks you to my beta noandwhere. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter on here. As always reviews are appreciated.

The school bus bounced over yet another pothole, and Giles cursed under his breath. Willow could empathise with what Giles was going through being stuck behind the wheel of such a clunky machine, when he was used to something of a higher standard; Willow felt the same way about Andrew's locator spell. Andrew was a novice at spell casting, not that she could hold that against him. It taken her long enough to learn how to float a 2B pencil - to this day she couldn't look at one without having the urge to snap it in half.

The spell had brought forth a sphere of light, that she now held in her right hand. It was glowing a deep crimson that Andrew explained it would do when they got close to the Ukobach. It was taking too long and there was no way of telling what havoc it was causing.

She had decided against using her own magic after this morning's spell; she was getting headaches like she used to. She guessed at a push, she had about one good spell left in her and even then she couldn't be certain she'd be a match for the demon. They'd decided that they better bring some of the girls along for reinforcements.

Without any warning Giles pressed down on the brakes, and they gave a loud screech. Once Willow's centre of gravity had returned to normal she glared at Giles but he wasn't taking any notice, instead he was looking out of his window.

Willow angled herself to see what he was looking. "Is that Faith?" She asked. It was and she was making her way towards them limping up a grassy verge at the side of the road.

Giles pressed the button to open the door. Faith climbed in holding her rips, she had burns on her face and her hair was giving off a singed odour. Willow couldn't help thinking that she looked like she'd been attacked by manic beauty therapist with sun lamps and hair straighteners.

"You after the same demon I am?" Faith said easing herself into a seat.

"Looks like," Willow said. "How much of ahead start has it got?"

Imala lay in the hospital bed, she'd finally stopped crying after being told she was the sol survivor of the car crash; the car crash that she'd caused. Her mother had finally left her bedside to go and get some of her things from home. There appeared to be nothing wrong with her but they were going to keep her under observation for the night.

When a different doctor came on shift she had looked down at Imala's admission notes with a puzzled look on her face. There were reports of serious injures she didn't have, the doctor decided that it must be a mix up. Imala knew that this wasn't true there wasn't a mistake but she kept her mouth shut because if they thought she was crazy they'd keep her here for longer.

Imala had felt this kind of loss before but only when she was dreaming. She had odd dreams, which she remembered trying to explain to Kaci. Kaci would say that they sounded like nightmares but that they did mean anything - maybe that she'd had too much dairy before going to bed but nothing else.

Imala had always known they weren't nightmares. In them she was always a different girl, always lonely but always strong. There were monsters and vampires, so it wasn't a surprise that Kaci had thought them to be nightmares. She'd feel the pain when on occasion the girl that she was would recognise one of the vampires as a family member or simply an acquaintance. They would talk to her for a moment, until a hunger took over them and all pleasantries were forgotten. But the girl would still plunge a piece of wood in their chest and they disappear into a gritty mist; the girls doubted what they did then.

Imala knew how they felt now. She'd become like one of them and had killed her best friend.

Imala sat up in her bed. She could hear a yell from down the corridor and somewhere in the hospital an alarm was going off. _This is wrong._

She yanked the IV out from the back of her hand, it was bleeding a lot more than she expected it to do. She pulled back her blanket and tried to stand up but ended up flopping onto the floor. She wasn't completely fixed then.

She had to find a weapon because tonight her dream was a nightmare.

And I thought I could sleep last night, Xander thought. Dawn and Andrew were talking, in their version of quiet. He wasn't sure why he'd said they could stay and why he'd agreed to share a room with Andrew in the first place; Giles said it was for economy sake but he suspected Giles had good-naturedly not wanted Xander to be left alone. He wouldn't have been shocked if Giles had done a safety check on the room first and had removed all sharp implements from the vicinity.

Xander knew it was best that he have people around him because he didn't want to be alone, not like Buffy. He'd seen her shut people out too many times before. He used to try and figure out what she would do in a situation and act accordingly. That was the past though.

He was certain that Buffy had to still be pissed about them throwing her out of her house. Kennedy was the only on who dared suggest that could be the case. If you betrayed someone were they just supposed to let it go, she must at least be a little bit defensive around them. She'd only let it go because who didn't need the extra help when the end of the world was looming?

He'd been stupid enough to think that they were all good again, all the talk of going to the mall and Dawn protecting duty didn't mean she'd forgiven him.

Dawn noticed Xander turning to lay on his stomach, it was the second time in the last few minutes he'd shifted his position. She turned back to Andrew who was upset that he'd been made to stay behind.

"They never let me go, either." Dawn said.

"It's my spell, I helped anyways - Giles kept getting in my way, he's threatened by me. That's why he sent me on that possibly be killed mission with Spike." He frowned after saying Spike's name, she guessed she wasn't the only missing Spike. "I even got to be all bad cop."

"I don't see it?"

"I'm feisty when I have to be." Andrew grinned with pride and she didn't want to spoil it.

"We should get our own Scooby gang."

"We could be like a spin-off group, I could poach a Slayer and a redeemable demon, got to have one of those. But we wouldn't be evil, right? And maybe we could get Xander too? He's been through a lot, he's so brave and tortured."

"I'm not asleep." Xander said and sat up, glaring at both of them.

"I know." Andrew looked at Xander affectionately and Dawn figured she was doing a watered down version of the same look.

Xander sighed, got up and sat with the two of them as they continued waiting for the others to return from their adventure and wishing they were in the first string team instead of always being alternates.

"I'm in charge of the spin-off group right?" Xander asked. "I make all major decision like the group name."

"The A team!" Andrew suggested, Dawn rolled her eyes. "See it's really clever it's the first letter of my name, a high grade and a group of 80's heroic icons." He waited eagerly for Xander's response.

"I'm putting the TV back on."

Faith heard Giles calling her back as she ran towards the hospital. She barrelled her way through a fleeing mass of people, elbowing to get through.

Willow's spell had led them here and that meant that the demon was inside. She sure as hell wasn't going to sit around while Giles decided what to do next. They thought this demon was some mindless creature but she knew differently. The demon they described wasn't this one, couldn't be. She'd seen the predatory intelligence and the malice of a murder in its eyes. And it had killed those vampires for the same reason she would have - fun.

She was trying to remember the route to Robin's room. _Robin can't be dead,_ was the thought she kept going through her mind, if he was it would be her fault.

The further she went into the hospital she noticed that fleeing people had been replaced by burnt ones. She couldn't figure out why it killed them and not her, it hadn't even tried to.

She heard feet running towards her, human. A slender girl with dark hair in a hospital gown ran towards her. She was carrying a fire extinguisher in her bloodied hands. Faith recognised her but couldn't place, she about to try.

"That demon after you?" The girl looked puzzle. "A big monster."

"How'd you--." She turned hearing a growl. "It's coming after me." Faith took the fire extinguisher from her noting the weight of it, running with it would have slowed down a normal human.

The demon had appeared at the end of the corridor and its focus was on the girl. It launched it's self towards the girl, and Faith sprayed it with the cool foam but it didn't do a thing.

It moved to attack the girl again.

"What I'm not your type?" She hurled the fire extinguisher at it smacking it in the chest forcing it back.

"Go!" Faith ordered and pulling on her arm and forcing her to run. They made it down another two before Faith doubled over in pain - hers ribs choosing now to throb with pain.

"I can fight this thing," Faith said straightening back up. "Got find something sharp."

"There's an operating theatre back that way."

"Not a chance." Faith looked around, her eyes focused on a vending machine. She gave the glass front of the machine a brutal kick and the glass shattered.

The demon was moving down the hallway towards them.

Faith fished about the broken glass and found the longest shard. She throw at the demon it stuck in it chest but it kept on coming towards them.

The double doors at the end of the hallway swung open. _Calvary always come_. They were tracking it after all if anything they should have got here quicker.

"Mortuus in glacies," Willow chanted in a confident tone Faith didn't recognise. The crimson ball of light in Willow's hand turned a frosty white and she launched it at the demon.

It gave out a howl of pain and was sealed in the ice. It slowly melted into a watery puddle, a black mist hung above before that disappeared through the floor.

"Kid you alright?" Faith put her hand out towards the girl and pulled her to her feet. She looked wide eyed at them all.

"What was that?"

"Haven't you seen Harry Potter?" Vi asked assuming CGI prepared kids for witnessing such a display. "Magic of course."

"Who are you all and what's wrong with me?" She looked down at herself and realised she was in a hospital gown and blushed a little.

"You're a Slayer." Willow smiled warmly at her.

"A what?"

"Well you see… I'm sorry what's your name?" Giles asked.

"Imala."

Willow stopped him. "Remember you can't use you're one girl in each generation speech, it's dated."

"I'm sure I'll find a new way to annoy the next generation."


	9. Chapter 9

**Series: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire

**Chapter: **8/10

**Author:**Aurey09

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

**A/N: **Thanks you to my beta noandwhere. As always reviews are appreciated.

Giles sat down on one of the beds in Xander's motel room, it was sparsely furnished but he doubt it was due to a minimalist aesthetic. He was having a hard time ignoring his natural inclination to research the demon they'd come up against. He wanted to put Willow's mind at rest and his own, and the only way was to vindicate her spell of any connection to the Ukobach. He'd omitted these details to Dawn as he told her about what happened at the hospital.

He also didn't express any of his concerns, when Dawn notified him that Xander had left the room nearly an hour ago to get some air. He had a good idea about what losing Anya had done to Xander, because he'd lost Jenny. It had taken him a long time to get over his anger and grief, it was a reason he'd been so forgiving of Willow when she'd lost Tara.

"I made it abundantly clear to Andrew he was to keep watch over Xander." Instead he'd fallen asleep in front of the television. The flickering blue light from the screen gave him a bluish tint, similar to the colour of an aquarium. He reminded Giles of one of those deep-sea creatures you'd see in those wildlife documentaries; they really should have thrown him back over board long before now. "How long has he been asleep for?"

"Not that long," Dawn said looking up from the game of Solitaire she has set in front of her. He recalled how she used to stay up late for hours playing cards with Spike. "He knew you were trying to get him out the way."

"Andrew?" It took him a few moments to recover. " Yes, well I was concerned about Xander's welfare. Andrew being preoccupied was merely a bonus." Dawn grinned at him knowing that Andrew being out of the away was one of Giles' number one priorities and he hadn't gone out of his why to dispel that.

He looked down at his wristwatch, it was late but he would wait for Xander to return.

He pulled off his shoes, not even bothering to unknot the laces. He considered removing his socks until he saw Dawn staring over at him in horror, apparently she considered his dressing down as an omen of something bad yet to come.

"Are you okay Giles?"

"I'm quite alright," He assured her "I do, however, suspect I'm getting to old to be traipsing about after demons. It's a young man's game."

"You're not... that old."

"I'm sure you could have phrased that better." He gave her a stern look.

"Sorry. I just wouldn't let Andrew hear you say somethin like that - he wants your job. His goal in life is to be a Watcher."

"The boy's clearly a simpleton. He can't imagine the responsibilities it entails." He did worry about the future of the Council, their numbers were low, they might be forced to take whatever help they could get. _Dear lord, I'll never be shut of him now._

"Then why do you do it? I mean there's a lot of other stuff you could be doing, right?" Dawn asked. He'd changed his mind over the years of what meant to truly be a Watcher.

"When I became a Watcher I saw my role simply as aiding the Slayer in her fight against the forces of darkness and then it became about helping her survive." He'd failed Buffy with that. "But now I see that a Watcher is a Slayer's family, the thing that binds her to her calling and her life."

"That's what I figured." Dawn smiled at him, she seems satisfied with his answer.

* * *

The nurses moved out of Faith's way as she finished checking Robin's blood pressure, she told the both of them that everything seemed to be fine. Faith hated how people over used the word 'seemed' to cover their backs in case of a screw up and then someone tried to sue for being given false hope.

Faith picked up a spoon off Robin's tray, scooped up the green wriggly substance and put it near him mouth. "You better make the most of it 'cause I don't make it a habit feeding people jell-o that's not in a shot." He took a reluctant bite.

"I should feel privileged then?" He exchanged an amused look with the nurse as she filled in the charts at the end of his bed.

"Your girlfriend's a real sweetheart, I think you should listen to her." Faith didn't say a word, compliments made her edgy. The nurse left the room, stopping Faith having to think up away to respond.

It had been a surprise to Faith how quickly things had realigned, there wasn't a single sign left that there had been a demon attack at the hospital. That kind of sweeping under the rug mentality was something she associated with Sunnydale. She remembered Wilkins finding a sense of wonder and delight in that. People in Sunnydale lived in blissful deadly ignorance, the housing prices didn't even go down but he'd been wrong about it being exclusive to the Hellmouth. That was just another lie she heard from him.

The police hadn't been there long before the five unrecognisable bodies from the attack had been moved down the hospital's morgue. If it had been a human doing the burning you could be sure it be plastered all over the news by now.

"Nobody saying a thing about what happened? I thought this forgetting you saw a demon crap was a Sunnydale quirk."

"People like knowing what they know, even if it's a lie or unhealthy, they feel they've got to keep their story together."

She chewed at her bottom lip, knowing he was thinking about her that she was hanging onto stuff about herself, things that didn't add up to what a human should be. She knew who she was, it was Robin who got it backwards. He knew Slayers, his mom was large scale hero just like Buffy and Faith couldn't be that. "I'm not Buffy."

He glanced up at her.

"Did I ever ask you to be?" He let his hand run through her hair.

"No." She sat on the bed with him. This wasn't a lie, she felt that now.

* * *

Buffy woke up and didn't feel at all rested. She forced herself to sit up. Her eyes were drawn to the edge of the bed, she half expected there to be a ghost there, she'd already seen two.

She looked out of the window, the sky was a deep blue, the kind it turned just before the sun appeared. _One day's passed, I'm not sure if I'll keep count._

She slipped on her shoes on and pulled a hand through her hair. The air in her room was humid and uncomfortable. She had to get out.

* * *

Imala padded out into the hallway in her pink fuzzy robe and slippers. They were a gift from her mom – she hated them but they were what she'd chosen for herself over adventure and destiny . Her eyes had been glued to them when Giles asked her if she wanted to leave with them, he was willing to train her to be a fighter like Faith but she'd said no.

Willow gave her an email address, along with a phone number where she could reach someone named Angel, they'd be staying there for a few days.

She wanted to say goodbye to Faith. She poked her head around the door, Wood was asleep but Faith wasn't. She tilted her head indicating it was okay for her to come into the room.

"You alright?"

"I think Giles was a little disappointed with me."

"Nah. He's just worried and English." Imala smiled, but it was difficult after today.

"This Slayer thing, it's just not for me."

"Slayer's who we are, maybe you need time to get used to it." She did feel some how different but wasn't certain about it like Faith was. "And saving people, that doesn't suck."

* * *

Dawn sat in a white lawn chair beside the motel's leaf covered pool. She played with the cuff of the over sized sweater someone had picked it out for her while she'd been at the hospital. She missed her old clothes and the smell of the cheap fabric-softener her mother  
was forced to use after their dad stopped sending as many cheques, it was something Buffy had continued buying. Now they were homeless and she wondered if they'd lose there mother's habits, that were connected to their house.

"Hey." Buffy said. Dawn forced all her thoughts back down as Buffy walked towards her.

"You missed all the action."

"Oh." Buffy nodded but Dawn could tell it was just a response to words being spoken. She wasn't particularly listening.

"We found another Slayer. Faith was the big new hero, saved the day."

"That's good, I'm so tired of saving the day, it's about time someone else did it."

"It's got to suck."

"Because it's Faith? Nah." Dawn looked at her. "A little." Buffy nudged Dawn up and sat in the chair with her.

They both watched as the suns rays shimmer along the surface of the swimming pool, the start of a new day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Series: **We Can Run Away Now They're All Dead and Gone.

**Part One: **Things Born of Fire

**Chapter: **10/10

**Author:**Aurey09

**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.

**A/N: **Thanks you to my betas spikendru, stretfordditto and noandwhere.

_48 hours ago_.

The legs of the stool squeaked under Giles' weight, as he reached up to the top of the cabinets in Buffy's kitchen. He managed to steady his balance, and stretched his arm further across the dust covered surface. He smiled; it appeared nobody had discovered where he'd been storing his treasure.

Giles began his descent, a box of Jaffa Cakes clutched in his hand. When his feet touched the floor, he tore through the packaging. He took his first bite into the chocolate and sponge; it was pure heaven.

"So, that's where you've been hiding them, is it?" Spike said. Giles took a deep breath, which did nothing to steady his frayed nerves. _And, so ends my peace._

Giles got down from his perch; Spike had already turned his back towards him, and missed the glare aimed in his direction. Spike was digging through the contents of the refrigerator. His fingers curled around an open milk carton and pulled it out, then slammed the door shut.

"What are you doing here?" Giles asked. He hadn't planned to speak, but at least his tone was even, no inflection had bled into it, which preserved his dignity. "Shouldn't you be at the high school, preparing with the others?"

"It's daylight." Spike said, and inclined his head towards the back yard.

"That never seemed to stop you before. What on earth happened to that moth eaten blanket yours?"

Spike shrugged, before taking a swig from the milk carton. He stopped mid-gulp, and narrowed his eyes at the label.

"That's for humans." Giles said.

"It's got tomorrow's date on it," Spike sighed, "Wonder if any of us do too?"

Giles had been thinking that too, since Buffy's latest speech. No, it was before that. He didn't feel that any of the girls were ready to face death, but maybe they'd surprise him - Buffy had.

"I was never in the dark as to that," Giles said. "I always knew what I was signing up for."

Spike nodded. "I grabbed that bloody brass ring with both hands; turned out to be barbed."

"No, you've never done anything by halves."

"Could say the same about you. You can be a right ruthless bastard, when you've got to be," Spike said, and took the seat opposite Giles. "Put the blood on your hands, so that she doesn't have to. Always, admired that about you."

"You were a threat." Giles looked down, he couldn't bring himself to mention Ben. He was a sacrifice he still would be willing to make, but a sacrifice nevertheless. Spike inspected his knuckles with intense scrutiny. Giles wondered if he too was looking for the splatters of blood.

"She's not gonna fail."

"I know. Buffy's a great strategist, when she puts her mind to it."

"It's why she always ended up kicking my arse. Not that I was always complaining about that," Spike said, the affection in his tone evident to Giles, although it made him uncomfortable. "I'm just telling it like it is, Watcher."

"Indeed." Giles held the box out to Spike, "Jaffa cake?"

Spike stretched his arm out towards the box. He stopped, his muscles seemingly seizing up. "Didn't inject them with holy water did you?"

"I can assure you, I did not. I know that you like them," Giles exhaled, "I had to eat them all when you moved out of my flat into that dreary crypt of yours. I was seduced by their charms.

"My sympathies," Spike said, and reached for one, "Alright, I'll take your olive branch. Take my pleasures where I can find them." He smirked, goading Giles with the implications of that. "'Cause, I got it figured, I'm the likely candidate for the chop, come tomorrow."

Giles took another bite of his Jaffa Cake. "And, how did you come to that conclusion about your imminent death?"

"Got a shiny trinket, and that's almost never a good omen. I've also got that same feeling, the one I had the night Buffy threw herself off that tower." Spike said as he gritted his teeth.

"You didn't die that night." Giles noticed Spike's Adam's apple bob as he spoke.

"No, something worse happened. I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, if something does happen to me, I need to know that you're going to be there for her," Spike unclenched his fingers and looked up at Giles. "If, I'm out of the way then you two stand a chance at being pals again. She needs people she can trust."

"And, you think that person should be me?" Giles asked sceptically.

"I'm not saying she hasn't surpassed you, because she has. But, she's forgiven the lot of you, still loves you all. She needs her friends and family.

"I know," Giles nodded, "I'm not doing this for you."

Spike laughed. "Rupert, I know the bloody score. Beside, I can only trust someone, who loves her more than their own worthless hide."  
++++

The Scoobies had decided to have breakfast at the local diner, about a block away from their motel. Initially, they'd been lured in by the aroma of sugary and fried foods, and then by the rich smell of percolating coffee. When they had first entered the diner, they'd been assaulted by the strong stench of industrial disinfectant; the tables had been wiped down in anticipation of the morning rush, but so far they'd been the only customers.

Xander was relieved that it was just the five of them. He'd become far too accustomed to having to eat with a dozen or more people. Giles had even agreed to pick up the tab - to Xander's mind there was almost nothing better than a free meal. His stomach didn't seem to agree, however, if the sickening pace it was churning at was a good indication.

He let his weight sag forward against the plastic guard of the pastry counter.

"You okay, Xander?" Willow asked. She put a hand on his shoulder and drew him away from the confectioneries. Xander nodded, which set off a new cluster of headaches in his skull. Willow leaned into his side for a moment, in an almost hug. He wondered if she would have been as sympathetic, if she knew he was hung over. Giles was the only one who knew. Giles had been waiting in his motel room. It had been almost three in the morning when he stumbled in, but Giles had seemed weary of lecturing him on the evils of liquor, and merely helped him into bed. Giles hadn't said anything to the others about the state Xander had been in.

He looked over to Buffy and Giles, who were currently seated at a small table, by the front window of the diner. They were both sipping their coffees in silence, but it wasn't the awkward quiet that had been present during the last few months in Sunnydale. The two were smiling, and Xander exhaled and relaxed. He hated the strain of how things were between them back at the house.

Dawn tapped him on the shoulder, and handed him a doughnut. The oozing jelly had already soaked into the napkin; his stomach somersaulted again.

"You've got to start the day off with a balanced breakfast of sugar and starch." Dawn said.

He rolled his eyes but took the doughnut anyway. He decided he was in need of comfort food—high-calories for the soul, then hopefully some Pepto-Bismol to wash it down with.

"Is that why you've ordered Buffy the leaning tower of pancakes?"

"Uh-huh." Dawn nodded, and tossed a handful of napkins against his chest. He smirked, and followed her over to where Buffy and Giles sat. Willow joined them.

"What are those?" Buffy gaped, as Dawn pushed the plateful of syrup drenched pancakes in front of her.

"They're pancakes. You eat them." Dawn explained, stretching the syllables to the breaking point.

"Did you bring a shovel? 'Cause that's what it's going to take."

"Ha ha ha, your wit wounds me. Now eat." Dawn ordered her.

"You're not the boss of me, I'm the boss of you." Buffy told Dawn, but gave in and took a bite. The other three exchanged amused glances at the exchange; Buffy smiled back at them.

Faith's muscles were still aching, from the battle in Sunnydale, and her ribs were still healing from when the demon attacked at the hospital. She was taking a long time to heal, though sleeping at Robin's bedside in an uncomfortable hospital chair hadn't helped.

She walked along the motel's parking lot toward the school bus. She could see most of the girls were already sitting inside. Andrew's face was squashed against the window; his breathing was slack in a peaceful sleep. She pounded her fist against the glass, and he woke with a start.

Giles pressed a button in the dashboard which opened the vehicles' doors.

"Where's the girl?" Giles asked, he wrenched his neck to the side, trying to see past Faith.

"Yeah, Giles, I'm alright," Faith huffed, "I got no sleep, and a kink in my neck's not going any place soon."

He gave her a look of confusion. She quirked her eyebrows at him and smiled – Giles was too easy to mess with, it almost took the fun out of teasing him. "The girl's fine. She just doesn't want in on the wonderful world of vampire slaying. But, you can always try and convince her when we swing back around for Robin tomorrow."

"No," Giles shook his head, "What, I mean is I'm not going to force her to become a Slayer. I'm not sure that we should be doing that, not anymore."

"Not anymore." Faith repeated. Giles nodded, it seemed to her the oddest thing a watcher had ever said. She wasn't sure how she felt about it.

She took her seat toward the back of the bus; finally she could rest.

"Faith," Andrew clambered up. "What happened at the hospital with the--?"

"My head's pounding; wanna keep your mouth shut a while?" She leaned back and shut her eyes.

"I was only going to ask about that Ukobach demon. I was the one that figured out what it was and--."

"We killed it," Faith said. She shuddered as she recalled the demon; the bastard was intelligent and brutal, the evil had just rolled off it. She still couldn't figure out why it killed that girl and spared her. "That's all your getting little boy, no sound bites or interviews for you to Candid Camera."

Andrew sulked, "Buffy's the better Slayer, anyways."

"Like hell she is."

"Her hair is shinier."

"You're gonna be walking to LA, if you don't shut your mouth."

"I could thumb it," he wiggled his thumb in her face, "Hitch-hiking's my extreme sport; one time I made it all the way to Mexico."

"I could break that." Faith said, getting a wicked gleam in her eyes. "So, you'd better get your hand out of my face."

Andrew shrunk back into his seat. "I'll be quiet."

Andrew sighed, and looked out the window. He wondered what was taking Buffy so long. She couldn't be spending all this time picking out an outfit. It wasn't even like she had that much choice; she only had two outfits—one that was splattered in her blood and another, which someone had picked for her that didn't know her size. It was LA, so of course blood-covered made a better fashion statement than baggy.

He hadn't put his old clothes back on himself. He couldn't; the blood on his shirt wasn't even his own. It was Anya's. It was all that they had left of her. He should have done something meaningful with it, instead of throwing it in the motel's trash.

He saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. It quickly moved across the car park, a black streak that looked like smoke. It slid, moving fluidly. It darted across the sidewalk and was gone. A shiver ran down his spine.

"Faith?"

"If you ask, are we there yet?" Faith yawned, "I'm gonna snap your forearm in two."

It was car exhaust, that's what it was. He closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around himself. He knew it would be a while before he could sleep again.

Buffy's hand hurt; it was still pink and tender, from when she clasped Spike's hand. She placed her palm against the window; the cold night's air still clung there.

She stood alone in the motel room; she really didn't feel like going to LA and explaining herself to Angel again.

She heard Elsa calling one of the other slayers, telling her to check the room to make sure they had everything. They both began laughing about nothing. Buffy knew she'd been young like that once. It felt like such a long time ago; she and Willow certainly didn't giggle like that anymore.

"It really wasn't that long ago." Buffy knew that voice, of course she did. It been kind, and understanding in life. She meet a pair of blue eyes in the glass.

"Not long ago? It was high-school," Buffy sighed, "It was before Willow fell in love, with you."

"And, before you loved him?"

Tara put her hand to Buffy's face, flesh touched flesh, and she knew that the dead that were visiting weren't the First.

"It's all going to be okay, in the end. You know that don't you?" Tara laughed; it was soft, more like a breath than an actual sound. "Right, I don't even know that. But we are all here with you, unwanted by the grave. You have a heart that carries the dead."

"And, I went all literal interpretation with that."

The smile on Tara's lips hurt Buffy to see it.

"Tara?" Buffy asked.

"Uh-huh?"

"You're at peace, aren't you?"

"I'm not sure. Are you?" Tara asked, "No, it's not so simple. None of this is. Willow and Faith think they killed that demon. But you can't; you awoke a sleeping giant, now it wants a part of you all. The only way to--."

Buffy's door swung half open. "Buffy, come on it's time to go." Willow called to her.

Buffy shut her eyes. She couldn't look at Tara's ghost and be hearing Willow in the same moment.

"I'll be right there." Buffy called back.

"Okay," The door fell shut.

Buffy opened her eyes, but of course Tara wasn't there anymore.

"Goodbye." Buffy said the word at last.  
++++


End file.
